We happened to be a town in the San Blas when there were about 300 members of the Panamanian army there for training. These guys have a pretty tough life with one month assigned to patrol the jungles along the border with Colombia - Darien Gap, not a nice place. There also was a fokloric festival going on and the army was doing its best to connect with the locals who are helpful in fighting against drug importing. These two guys were making balloon animals for the Kuna kids.
BTW, when we there the army caught one of the Colombian trading vessels that ply this coast with 700 kg of cocaine onboard - a big deal, it was even on CNN. To help with getting the support of the locals all of the trade goods on the boat, flour, rice, housewares, etc that were piled on top of the cocaine were given to the the village.

Our strangest cultural interaction in the San Blas was being asked by a family in a dugout canoe if we could charge their two rather old cell phones. There is quite cell coverage there but no electricity.

__________________
Heading back to Lake Ontario for this summer. Relatively few stops along the way from Grenada. Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin (must have something to do with the French food), then Bermuda, New England and up the Hudson/Erie Canal. We were going to go via Newfoundland and Labrador but June remembered that one of the kids is getting married this summer - details, details!

We have enjoyed the food when we cruise and have found some terrific markets along the way. Ecuador, Tahiti, and Fiji come to mind. The markets in Ecuador were particularly interesting since, because of elevation change and fairly short distances you could get anything from tropical fruits to strawberries.

We really enjoyed eating local stuff and the people in the markets always seemed to enjoy having tourists visit. We also ate in real restaurants too. Best eating was in Papeete (but who could afford most of it) and in Suva, Fiji which has several outstanding Indian restaurants (not a surprise since almost half the population is Indian) and a terrific, gourmet Chinese restaurant. We also found an incredibly good Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown of Lima. My wife, who is a Beijing girl, was shocked to find that none of the people working there were Chinese. She said she had never had better Chinese food.

__________________
Heading back to Lake Ontario for this summer. Relatively few stops along the way from Grenada. Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin (must have something to do with the French food), then Bermuda, New England and up the Hudson/Erie Canal. We were going to go via Newfoundland and Labrador but June remembered that one of the kids is getting married this summer - details, details!

This is a shot of a couple of kids in Vanuatu, a place we very much enjoyed, The one kid was so proud of his pig that he picked it up to show us.

This picture is in Bora Bora, which we did not particularly enjoy, btw. We happened to be there when all the island schools were doing a performance in a huge marquee tent for anyone who was there including moms and little siblings. Loved the flower headresses that these two had. Also note the incredible string of black pearls that this woman had.

__________________
Heading back to Lake Ontario for this summer. Relatively few stops along the way from Grenada. Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin (must have something to do with the French food), then Bermuda, New England and up the Hudson/Erie Canal. We were going to go via Newfoundland and Labrador but June remembered that one of the kids is getting married this summer - details, details!

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